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DECEMBER 2005 mark stewart w/ david cossin & very special guests Thursday, December 1 Mark Stewart and David Cossin, two members of Bang on a Can All Stars, will grace our "circle" in an evening of music with rare & neglected instruments and their dulcet, surprising and powerful sounds. The performance will also feature the ISSUE Project Room NOSEFLUTE CHOIR and noseflutes will be provided for all attendees. Mark Stewart lives in New York and makes his living playing and writing popular music, semi-popular music and unpopular music, while designing and building new musical instruments to be his allies in these endeavors. He plays regularly with Paul Simon, Fred Frith, Steve Reich, Zeena Parkins and Polygraph Lounge. David Cossin has recorded and performed internationally with Talujon Percussion Quartet, Newband (micro-tonal music played on the Harry Partch instruments), New Music Consort, Sudden Sight, Blue Man Group and with a German-accordion-polka-lounge band called B. Blush. He's done a number of additional theatrical performances such as The Lion King, Peony Pavilion (Peter Sellars/Tan Dun), and Mabou Mines and recorded music for the films Fallen and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee) both composed by Tan Dun. He has been working on two installation-pieces, SwingSet, a sonic sculpture with large suspended aluminum pipes, and SpinCycle, an oscillating quadraphonic tape piece, both of which were exhibited in New York in 1999. This year, he has been performing solo percussion concerts throughout Italy and the United States incorporating video, electronic processing, and homemade instruments. 8:00 p.m., $10 an evening of theremin Friday, December 2 Featuring solos and various combinations performed by a wide-range of today's skilled thereminists, including: Dorit Chrysler, Armin Ra, David Simons, Anthony Ptak and Rob Schwimmer... ISSUE Project Room and composer/musician Dorit Chrysler, best known for her theremin style, launch a new series of events based on investigating the sound and range of the theremin. In addition, the series will begin the Theremin Orchestra, an innovative ensemble of musicians who are composing new music for the theremin and who are interested in using the instrument in sound performances today. 8:00 p.m., $10 literary reading: short story & prose Saturday, December 3 Tonight's writers include Frederic Tuten, Sharon Wexler, Peter Wortsman, Quentin Rowanand and David Lefkowitz. 8:00 p.m. james fei & sean meehan Tuesday, December 6 Sean Meehan snare drum James Fei microphone feedback & live electronics James Fei (b. Taipei) moved to the US in 1992 to study electrical engineering. He has since been active in New York as a composer and improviser on saxophone and electronics. Recent recordings include Alto Quartets, with his ensemble of four alto saxophones, and Sieves, an electro-acoustic duo with Kato Hideki. www.jamesfei.com Sean Meehan became musically active in the late 80's at the amica bunker series for improvised music which was then housed at ABC No Rio in New York City. Current performances generally find Meehan playing only the snare drum in a manner that sheds conventional usage and reconstructs the conception and function of the instrument. Concert activities, both at home and away, are generally divided between playing in conventional settings for experimental music and in seeking out unique locations that are often in the unobserved and unconsidered corners of the city. Meehan's recordings document some of his collaborations and solo work. Other contributions to the material world include the construction of performance objects that serve as "compositional things". Included in this are the pieces gift iii which musically activated a sink full of dishes; gift iv for woodblock; and audio, a boxed set of four cassettes to be played in the mind. 8:00 p.m., $10 jub-cat Thursday, December 8 Jeff Arnal percussion Briggan Krauss alto saxophone Tomas Ulrich cello JUB-KAT is a collaborative trio inspired by many musical traditions. Each player contributes a personal sound and influence that navigates the collision of melodic lines and crashing events. Pushing and pulling the vibrations through the gravity of each piece, sound is at rest in the cavity of the horns' bell - a murmur from the shell of a drum - strings dissolve into breathing air with scraping skins. All touching a mindful sensibility that stems from the fluidity of a collective thought. 8:00 p.m., $10 billy martin Thursday, December 15 Percussionist Billy Martin will perform his "Black Elk Speaks" compositions and other spontaneous pieces for bass drums, gongs, drum set, balaphones, mbiras and more. . . Billy Martin, founding member of Medeski, Martin & Wood, can truly be considered a musical veteran, and has performed on over 55 albums during the last 18 years, ranging from John Scofield to Iggy Pop as well as Bobby Previte's ensemble at Next Wave, Sam Bennett's Chunk, Ned Rothenburg's Double Band, Oren Bloedow's band, John Lurie's Lounge Lizards, John Zorn's Electric Masada and the Sweet Lizard Illtet (where he received the nick name illy B). In 1995, Martin started Amulet Records (www.amuletrecords.com), a label that has released a number of percussion recordings, traditional Gamelan music and reissues of several of Bob Moses' recordings. He has also delved headlong onto the art world with several art exhibitions (www.illyb.com) and more to follow coinciding with MMW tours. Martin has several projects expected to be completed in the next year ranging from a breakbeats record, illy B Eats, a book to a line of clothing (www.illywear.com). 8:00 p.m., $10 chris mann Sunday, December 18 F is always in speaker 5, A is always speaker 9, T is always 3... 42 phonemes, 16 speakers, one voice. the performance space as larynx. Chris Mann "Language is the mechanism whereby you understand what I'm thinking better than I do. (Where 'I' is defined by those changes for which I is required)." Poet, writer, performer, improviser, Chris Mann's works for voice are based on complex texts, freely composed to allow a play of wit and humor. He explores the textures and gestures of Australian speech, with its rhythms and qualities of color, pitch, intonation and emphasis. He has collaborated widely with composers, film-makers, and electronic music composers. He has received commissions from Radio France, Paris Autumn, National Public Radio, Composers Forum, Australian Biennale, Ars Electronica, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, BBC ... He has held residencies at the Shire of Healesville in Victoria, ABC Staff Union, Harvestworks, RPI's iEar Studios ... Chris Mann performs extensively worldwide with Machine for Making Sense, Chris Mann and the Impediments, and solo. 8:00 p.m., $10 *CANCELLED due to MTA strike* peeesseye + alessandro bosetti + nate wooley ben owen + mpld meke meke trio - tatsuya nakatani + kenta nagai + minoshima osechi Tuesday, December 20 An acoustic noise castle as peeesseye welcomes soprano saxophonist Alessandro Bosetti (Berlin) and trumpter Nate Wooley (Jersey City) to the fold. Ben Owen and mpld continue their sound / slide projector performances. And MInoshima Osechi (soprano saxophone) making an extremely rare appearance with local heroes Tatsuya Nakatani(percussion) and Kenta Nagai (strings) as the Meke Meke Trio. Presented by the King Collision Collective. 8:00 p.m., $10 new year's eve party Saturday, December 31 Join us on for an amazing ensemble of sound and performance with various artists including Rebecca Moore, Phill Niblock, Katherine Liberovskaya, Stephan Moore, Anthony Coleman performing Jelly Roll Morton, Jim Pugliese's Phase 3 plus special guests, some big surprises and more... 8:00 p.m., pay what you will; suggested donation; $20 audrey chen & nate wooley duo + trockeneis Wednesday, November 2 Nate Wooley is an improvising trumpet player born in Clatskanie, Oregon. He has developed a unique voice that blends the influences of lower-case, free-jazz, contemporary classical, and noise musics organically. Born quite impromtu during a live improv set performed for the Peadbody Conservatory student body in spring 2004, the Baltimore quintet, Trockeneis, has since been generating excitement in the East Coast improv/experimental music scene. The group is comprised of a core group of Baltimore improvisors each who brings great passion and musical subtlely to create a truly unique sound/improv experience. A combination of highly idiosyncratic instrumentation, focused, mature musicianship and ego-free, risk-taking group dynamics promise to make this group known on a national level. The group has definite roots in lowercase improv, but grows rapidly beyond that creating complex, rich soundscapes rooted in a true spirit of experimentation. Audrey Chen (vocals) utilizes traditional and extended technique in order to create a hybrid language that pushes the boundaries of both instruments. Many of her performances incorporate both aural and visual components, utilizing sculpture, movement and sound. Paul Neidhardt (percussion) performs his ability to trade extremely tight traditional chops with very focused sound-oriented techniques such a doweling, bowing, suction etc has made him a favorite in improv circles. Dan Breen (bowed metal) is an well-known multi-instrumentalist in Baltimore and other East Coast cities. He performs with a range of musical projects from the funk band, The Financial Group, to the un-categorizable and tasty electronics/drums group - Snacks. Andrew Hayleck (bowed metal) is quickly becoming a nationally known sound artist and musician. His extensive touring and field-recordings (ice, crabs etc) are well-known in experimental music scenes across the US. And Catherine Pancake (dry ice), in an on-going tribute to Michael Culligan, will play dry ice and try not to cause too many disruptions before it is all over. 8:00 p.m., $10 a talk w/ daniel pinchbeck Thursday, November 10 The Life, Death, Rebirth Cycle in Individuals and Society Daniel Pinchbeck will offer an analysis of current events, including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, opening the possibility that we are passing through a death and rebirth passage in our own culture. He will suggest this is a natural process, as well as an apocalyptic transition, leading to a new model of individual responsibility and a new civilization based on compassionate action, that must be supported by new social institutions. Holotropic Breathwork facilitator Stacia Butterfield will discuss Stan GrofÕs work on the holotropic model of the psyche, and the life, death, rebirth cycle, as it is reflected in his study of non-ordinary states of consciousness in which his subjects reexperienced aspects of their birth traumas. An open discussion of these issues will follow, on how to integrate the personal and the social dimensions of this process. Daniel Pinchbeck is the author of "Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism" (Broadway Books, 2002) and a regular columnist for Arthur Magazine. His second book, "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl," on indigenous prophecies and consciousness transformation, will be released by Viking-Penguin in April. His feature articles have appeared in The New York Time Magazine, Esquire, Wired, The Village Voice, and numerous other publications. A founding editor of Open City, a literary journal, he is currently launching a new membership and media company, Evolver (www.evolverproject.com) , offering a new paradigm for a planetary culture. Stacia Butterfield is a graduate of Grof Transpersonal Training, and a Holotropic Breathwork Facilitator based in New York and California. yamato-takeru by masayuki kawai: a video installation Friday, November 11 opening: 6-8pm Yamato-Takeru was made during Masayuki Kawai's JCVA (Jerusalem Center for Visual Arts) residency, during November 2004 in Israel. Video work YAMATO-TAKERU (2005) is a part of the in-progress trilogy work "Kojiki", an experimental video story on the spirit and consciousness of the present. The story's background is the earliest Japanese literature work, "Kojiki" (The Book of Ancient Matters), written in the 8th century. The Kojiki describes, in mythic/epic form, the complicated stories of the gods and heroes, detailing a process from the beginning of the world to the establishment of the ancient state. In this piece, a heroic story of prince Yamato-takeru is referred to. All the images are shot in Israel. This piece represents an odyssey of a sight-consciousness of video/audience, revealing meanings of the \ landscape and the sacred. Thus it presents a conceptual mixture of history, revelation, religion and human existence, crossing over cultures Masayuki Kawai was born 1972 in Osaka, Japan, and lives and works in Tokyo and New York. He holds B.A. in aesthetics from University of Tokyo. As an artist, one of his main themes is media society, and he investigates radical, philosophical and aesthetic expression of video as a new integral way to perceive, consider, criticize and overcome the present situation. To establish a critical roll for video art against the society of spectacle, he started Videoartist Workshop in 1999 and then from 2001 till 2004 he was director of Videoart Center Tokyo and art director of Phaidros cafe. He has contributed to many projects of video art like curating programs, organizing festivals, publishing magazines. He writes critical discourses as an author in many books and magazines. Now he stays in New York for one-year artist-in-residency program with a fellowship of Japanese Government. His video works have been shown, nominated and awarded in over 15 countries, and included collection of Queens Museum of Art, New York; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany etc. b m w (tony buck, ikue mori & david watson) Friday, November 11 Tony Buck drums Ikue Mori laptop David Watson bagpipe Though the history and relationships amongst these three players goes back a long time and are quite intertwined, this performance is the first outing for this exact combination. Expect playful and unexpected strategies and a finely wrought exploration of sonic space. The musicality and experience of these players will make bagpipe, laptop and percussion seem like the most natural twining, and perfectly suited to the space's resonant clarity. Tony Buck, now located in Berlin, is regarded as one of Australia's most creative and adventurous exports, with vast experience in many musical styles cross the globe. He has played, toured or recorded with, among others, Jon Rose, Nicolas Collins, Tenko, John Zorn, Tom Cora, Phil Minton, Haino, Switchbox, The Machine for Making Sense, Ne Zhdall, The EX, Peter Brotzmann, Hans Reichel, The Little Red Spiders, Subrito Roy Chowdury, Clifford Jordan, Kletka Red, Han Bennink, Shelley Hirsch, Wayne Horvitz, Palinckx, and Ground Zero. Ikue Mori is one of the busiest players on the improv scene. Currently, she is working among various groups, including "Mephista" with Sylvie Courvoisier and Susie Ibarra, a quartet with Kim Gordon, DJ Olive and Jim O'Rourke, duo project with Zeena Parkins, and Hemophiliac with John Zorn and Mike Patton. Worked with the band with Dave Douglas's "Witness Freakin" ensemble and John Zorn's Electric Masada. David Watson, originally from New Zealand, has lived and worked in New York City since 1987. Recognized both as a guitarist and new-music bagpipe performer his recent work includes music, new media work and collaborations for dance. His recent projects include: "Accent Elimination," on the theme of collision and energy transfer for Jeremy Nelson's dance at St Marks /Danspace; "Hotspot" - a piece using found sound, processing and video on the history of toxic waste and the ecology of Greenpoint with Yves Musard and Kimberly Simpson at Galapogos Art Space; "Galaxie Pearl " - music for Yves Musard's dance performance at St Mark's /Danspace featuring an eight channel speaker installation; "Glacial" - an ongoing collaborative project with Lee Ranaldo and "Throat " - a largely solo CD of new bagpipe music for the Ecstatic Peace label, with guest vocalists Shelley Hirsch and Makigami Koichi. 8:00 p.m., $10 metamusic: arvo part & valentin silvestrov performed by jenny lin, cornelius dufallo & loren dempster Saturday, November 12 Pianist Jenny Lin, violinist Cornelius Dufallo and cellist Loren Dempster, acclaimed stalwarts of new music in New York, will present chamber works by two of today's most celebrated composers. * PROGRAM * Valentin Silvestrov Piano Sonata No. 1 Postludium (for cello and piano) Post Scriptum (for violin and piano) Arvo Part Fur Alina (piano solo) Spiegel im Spiegel (for violin and piano) Fratres (for cello and piano) 8:00 p.m., $10 ned rothenberg w/ david tronzo, stomu takeishi, tony buck Sunday, November 13 Ned Rothenberg woodwinds David Tronzo guitar Stomu Takeishi electric bass Tony Buck drums All 4 musicians are unique; it is simply no exaggeration to say each has built a fully-formed personal musical voice on their instrument. But does that make a band? Well, that was the experiment when this quartet was born last April during The Stone's opening month and all concerned felt magic had happened. For in addition to voices, they have deep ears as well! Tony Buck's return to our shores offers a rare opportunity to reconvene and ISSUE's wonderful room offers the place.... 8:00 p.m., $10 project one the aura electric, opus three Saturday, November 19 The Aura Electric, Opus Three will be performed by the Mat Maneri / Randy Petersen Duo Ñtwo of the most innovative and distinctive artists on the downtown improvised sceneÑ and The Project One Ensemble performing works for electric string quartet (George Crumb's Black Angels and a world premiere by Michael Spassov). The Aura Electric, Opus Three explores the sound worlds of amplified strings by juxtaposing different approaches to composed and improvised 'electric chamber music'. The relationship between composed and improvised music as well as the role of technology in will be expanded through a discussion with the artists and audience and in a program essay whose departure point is Walter Benjamin's concept of the aura of a work of art. What is Project One? By converging contemporary improvised and new music, Project One presents provocative programs that explore the vitality and philosophical and cultural contexts of music today through performance and discussion. * PROGRAM * 7:00 Project One Ensemble Michael Spassov: World Permiere George Crumb: Black Angels for Electric String Quartet: Thirteen Images from the Dark Land Cornelius Dufallo & Ariana Kim violins Kenji Bunch viola Leigh Stuart cello 8:00 Discussion Moderated by Christopher Zimmermann 8:30 Mat Maneri / Randy Peterson Duo - Improvisations Mat Maneri electric viola Randy Peterson drums 7:00 p.m., $15 retro relay Sunday, November 20 This event celebrates both the participating musicians of the Relay - NYC and local improvising musicians, by offering them and the public an opportunity to meet, play music, eat and drink in the beautiful ISSUE Project Room. Informal set lists will be up for any musicians to play with each other, while everyone else sits back to listen, eat, drink and chat (between the music). Food is complimentary. RELAY musicians: Ricardo Arias (New York), balloons Burkhard Beins (Berlin), percussion John Bisset (London), guitar Rachael Elliott (New York), bassoon Robert Dick (New York), flute Joan La Barbara (New York), voice Miya Masaoka (New York), koto Wade Matthews (Madrid), bass clarinet Ikue Mori (New York), electronics Pauline Oliveros **(New York), accordion Jane Rigler (New York), flute Nikos Veliotis* (Athens), cello Jack Wright (New York), saxophone 8:00 p.m., $10 miguel frasconi & gina leishman Wednesday, November 30 Composers and multi-instrumentalists Miguel Frasconi & Gina Leishman join forces to explore the unique and varied qualities of glass. They will perform compositions and improvisations on found & home-made instruments involving rubbing, striking, and breaking all forms of glass objects. Miguel Frasconi is an award-winning composer and performer of new exploratory world music. By combining musical instruments from around the world with experimental forms, cutting-edge electronics and new glass instruments, he creates a music that sounds from a uniquely imagined tradition. He has composed over thirty works for dance and numerous film scores. He also has a long history of working with other composers including John Cage, James Tenney, Jon Hassell, Paul Dresher, and most recently with Morton Subotnick, Aki Onda, Raz Mesinai, and o.blaat. Frasconi's early work includes 10 years as a founding member of the Glass Orchestra, the internationally acclaimed new music ensemble featuring all glass instruments. Composer and multi-instrumentalist Gina Leishman is perhaps best-known as co-leader of KAMIKAZE GROUND CREW and MR. WAU-WA, and as singer/songwriter of the critically acclaimed album BED TIME. Born in England and schooled in Europe, she has long made her home in the US, and in New York for the past 11 years. She has written for the theater, opera, dance, film and concert stage, garnering numerous awards. For her first opera, she had built for her a unique musical instrument of tiered spinning glasses which was the genesis of her on-going fascination with glass music and this evening's concert. 8:00 p.m., $10 stephan moore's hemispherical speaker system launch party Saturday, October 1 Don't miss the launch of Stephan Moore's sixteen-channel hemispherical speaker system. ISSUE Project Room will host Moore's unit as a long-term installation designed to allow interested composers the opportunity to experiment, present and create new works specifically for these components. This evening, participants include electronic composers Al Margolis, Stephan Moore, Scott Smallwood and Dion Workman. "Electronic music has traditionally relied on front-firing loudspeakers to produce sound in a concert situation. Because these speakers emit sound in a highly directional manner, the sounds produced have a quality that is very different from acoustic instruments, which radiate sound in all directions and engage their environment more completely. These hemispherical speakers allow electronic instruments to take on the characteristic intimacy of acoustic instruments, changing the experience of the performer and audience, and improving the viability of hybrid performances which mix acoustic and electronic sounds. Work with these speakers began with Dan Trueman and Perry Cook at Princeton University in 1997, and continued with Curtis Bahn and myself at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute starting in 2001. We have found that spherical speaker arrays provide a complex and fruitful alternative to the traditional paradigms of sound production. As we design new performance systems and create sound installations with the speakers, we find that we are still discovering all of the implications of point-source sound radiation. As the community of artists, musicians, and researchers working with the speakers expands, so will the repertory of uses." -- Stephan Moore 8:00 p.m., $10 joe morris ensemble text messaging Thursday, October 6 A performance of improvised music conducted with the use of graphic scores. The scores are maps containing cells with written word directions/suggestions taken from my glossary of terms that I use to describe subtle, and not-so subtle approaches to sound, rhythm, dynamics, form, groupings and thematic material. The results will rely on the unique talents of this assemblage of fine musicians. Joe Morris (guitar, mandolin), Daniel Levin (cello), Michael Evans (percussion), Daniel Blacksberg (trombone), Michael Winograd (alto saxophone, clarinet), Jeff Kimmel (bass clarinet), and Jaimie Branch (trumpet,cornet). 8:00 p.m., $10 adam kendall w/ special guests Saturday, October 8 An evening of collaborative, improvisational video and music. Joining Kendall are musicians he's worked with in the past -- Vortex (Satoshi Takeishi & Shoko Nagai), o.blaat (Keiko Ueinishi) and Bradford Reed & Bill Bronson -- plus pianist Anthony Coleman and his Hellbender Film Projekt video-partner Al Griffin. There will be 4 sets of exploratory performances. The artists will focus on the interaction of visuals and sound, relying more on traditional methods of ear/eye response than overly-reactive mechanical/digital systems. Adam Kendall is a Brooklyn-based video-artist whose work has been described as "Deftly-mixed real-world sentiments with beautiful abstractions of monochrome tones and nearly organic shapes." He composes and improvises solo and in collaboration with other artists. For more information, visit: http://www.hellbender.org 8:00 p.m., $10 ivol bol w/ james hirschfeld, missy mazzoli & red wierenga Thursay, October 13 A perfomance of Dutch/American electro-acoustic improvisation. Ivo Bol is an Amsterdam based composer deconstructing live recorded sounds and lost and found audio treasures. Red Wierenga is a pianist/accordionist/electronic musician currently based in New York. Red Wierenga and trombone player James Hirschfeld play in the talented young jazzsextet Respect. American composer and pianist Missy Mazzoli studied with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. She was recently selected to be a featured composer at Merkin Hall for next year's Emerging Composer concert, hosted by Michael Gordon. 8:00 p.m., $10 things heard unheard w/ brian willson, yuko fujiyama & dominic duval cd release party Friday, October 14 Brian Willson, Yuko Fujiyama and Dominic Duval celebrate the release of their CD "things heard unheard" on the Deep Listening Label. The eclectic percussionist, musical director and classical conductor Brian Willson formed this trio with long-time associates Dominic Duval and Yuko Fujiyama to explore his life-time interest in free improvisatory music. Willson also recently recorded a series of duets with Pauline Oliveros. His trio album, things heard unheard, has recently been released on the Deep Listening Label. In a way you could call this music classic free jazz. Better yet, this is music that defies classification; truly free. 8:00 p.m., $10 physical theater improvisation w/ shinichi momo koga & cassie terman Monday, October 17 Physical Theater Improvisation. The performers enter the stage empty and build an evening length work from the first moments and gestures. Terman and Koga play in a highly physical realm that includes sound/music and language to explore an often surreal and dreamlike, yet utterly immediate world together. Comic dilemma, the pathos of human frailty, passionate engagement and associative narratives are woven into a cohesive, wild, delicate, and unpredictable whole. Performances reveal human experiences that are archetypal and modern, intricate while steeped in simplicity. Shinichi Momo Koga's productions have been experienced since 1988 throughout the North American Continent, Europe and Japan. A photographer, filmmaker and theater actor/director, Koga became primarily known as a Butoh dancer after 1991 when he began dancing under Hiroko and Koichi Tamano. In 1994, he created the group Uro Teatr Koku with Alenka Mullin Koga which became inkBoat in 1998. Additionally, he collaborates with Yumiko Yoshioka and TEN PEN CHii (Germany: 1996-2001), Do Theatre (Russia: 1997-present), Shadowlight Theatre (USA: 1993-1997) and the group adapt in Berlin with Minako Seki, Sten Rudstøm, Yuko Kaseki and Yael Karavan. Cassie Terman is a performer, dance/theater director, writer, and teacher. She began training in Physical Theater and Improvisation Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah in 1991. Since then she has been performing with the International Action Theater Ensemble (1992-present), founded and performed in the three-woman theater group "etiquette" (1998-2000), performed with inkBoat (2000-2001), and currently works in collaborative duets with Sten Rudstrom, Shinichi Momo Koga, and Keren Rosenbaum/Reflex Ensemble. As well as collaborating, she also regularly performs solo improvisations that incorporate language, sound and physicality. Her one-woman show "Citizen of Trees" opened in 2004 in San Francisco to much acclaim. 8:00 p.m., $10 decoupage Tuesday, October 18 Decoupage is a chamber quartet led by trombonist and composer Curtis Hasselbring. The group has been performing ever since September of 2004, when Curtis taped some pictures of Brittany Spears and some monkey-shaped cocktail stirrers to music-staff paper for the band to play at CBGBs Gallery. Since then, Curtis has composed a repertoire for the group that is minimal, obliquely beat-oriented and caters to the unique identities of these great musicians. Decoupage is Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Mat Maneri (viola), Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Satoshi Takieshi (percussion). 8:00 p.m., $10 jane rigler & charlotte hug Thursday, October 20 Charlotte Hug (viola & electronics) and Jane Rigler (flute & electronics) join forces for the first time in New York City. Charlotte Hug's music is textual and almost physical, as she combines the visual arts, dance and installations with her music. "My work with electronics has a strong influence on the way I play my instrument. I am intrigued by the potential of an extended range of sounds and playing techniques. With my soft bow technique, for instance, I have been able to produce between four and eight voices without the help of electronics. Wetting the bow with the water produces a whole other sonic spectrum, what I call my wetbow technique, while by twisting a bow¹s hairs to create the twistbow I can elicit sounds that are virtually identical to those produced electronically." Jane Rigler plays her flute and voice to combine ancient non-Western traditions with her own unique sounds. Currently, she is using this with electronics, creating haunting soundscapes that implore the audience to imagine stories in real time. 8:00 p.m., $10 steven berson w/ sean mccaul & more Friday, October 21 Steven Berson, cellist for the cross genre string quartet Invert, will perform solo with 5-string electric contra-cello, bouzouki (8 string Greek mandolin), djimbe and voice. Steve will present both soundscapes created by layering and manipulating his instrument's sounds live with a digital looping echo system, and deconstructions/reconstructions of songs that he wished he had written (including pieces by Tricky, Van Morrison, Richie Havens and Willie Dixon). Joining Berson is vibraphonist / percussionist Sean McCaul, who has recorded with Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, and Reeves Gabrel among many others, performing original compositions and improvisations that freely cross genres from jazz to rock to ambient to avant-garde and all points in between. Steve and Sean will offer perform duos together and with cameos by a number of special guests, including prepared guitarist Ben Miller (known for his work with Destroy All Monsters, Dirty Old Man River, M3, Third Border, etc.) 8:00 p.m., $10 underpass a video/sound work by bruce tovsky & special guests, including john hudak & brooks williams Saturday, October 22 Inspired by the resonant sound of arched spaces and bridges,UNDERPASS combines field recordings and video, found footage, theremin, feedback guitar and live computer processing into a concerto of sound and vision in three movements. Encompassing Tovsky's broad interests in phonography, analog sound generation, extended guitar technique and cutting-edge digital processing, UNDERPASS is the culmination of several years of work collecting and evolving a set of imagery and sounds that Tovsky and his collaborators will use as a platform for improvisation. 8:00 p.m., $10 steve buscemi w/ aida turturro & john ventimiglia + mystery guest Monday, October 24 A very special evening featuring actors Steve Buscemi with Aida Turturro & John Ventimiglia, dynamic performer/directors working in independent theater and film today. "Interview", to be directed by Buscemi, is the story of a star political journalist who must interview a popular soap opera actress against his will. The actors will be reading excerpts from screenplays of current remakes of films by late Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh. Excerpts will also be read from a third Van Gogh screenplay "06", the tale of two people who meet on a phone sex hotline and develop a relationship without ever meeting. Originally nominated for a Dutch academy award in 1994, "06" is set to be directed by Bob Balaban. All three films, planned as a trilogy, are presently being shot on digital video and set for release in early 2006. As an added bonus, stay tuned after the readings for a musical performance by a special mystery guest. 8:00 p.m., $20 -- reservations recommended. poet's dinner Thursday, October 27 At this month's Poet Dinner: Bob Holman, Anselm Berrigan, Gail Ward, Hanifah Walidah, Ammiel Alcalay and more.... All food is home-made and cooked on site by Chef Anila Groft of Essential Kettle, a unique and imaginative catering company using only whole foods and seasonal ingredients. Join us for a three-course dinner of Portuguese stewe over wild rice, baked savory apples and cheese plate, homemade breads and pumpkin ice cream. Pre-fix menu costs $20.00 (beverage/alcohol additional). Reservations are strongly recommended. Call 718-330-0313 or email us: info@issueprojectroom.org 8:00 p.m. a talk w/ fritz hauser Friday, October 28 Join percussionist/composer Fritz Hauser as he gives a talk about his recent release, Deep Time, and about various compositional approaches. In addition, Hauser will discuss his own work and his collaborations with Pauline Oliveros of Deep Listening. "Mr. Hauser is simply one of the best drummers alive; when he's finished with one of his improvised concerts, you leave with a new understanding of his drums' anatomy, their exact range of sound. You don't miss the rest of the rhythm section, and you learn that when a musician possesses such extraordinary touch and a sensitivity to pulse, "abstract" never means "haphazard"." - The New York Times 7:00 p.m., $10 (includes admission to the concert) fritz hauser, david gamper & pauline oliveros Friday, October 28 Celebrating the launch of Deep Time, a new 2 CD set from Deep Listening with Fritz Hauser on percussion, David Gamper on keyboard/electronics, and Pauline Oliveros on accordion. Deep Time was commissioned for the Deep Listening Band in 1995 and composed by Fritz Hauser. 8:00 p.m., $10 unitygain Saturday, October 29 Active since 1998 the Unitygain platform for live AV electro-media performance was among the first of the NYC 'immersive' events coming out of the 'Illbient' period to concentrate on a balanced architectural integration of live (and only live) electronic music and realtime video performance. Originally the unrequited love child of 80's thru 90's musical adventurer David Linton - who organized the sound system participants - and 70's avant 'analog' video accolade / proto VJ enfant terrible Benton-C Bainbridge - who did something analogous for the video - UG eventually morphed into a late nite Manhattan Cable TV show: UGTV (MNN channel 34 Featuring performing audio: > Aerostatic (NYC) > David Last (NYC) > David Linton (NYC) > Oblaat (NYC) > Sariah Storm (LA) > Socks and Sandals (NYC) > Steve Nalepa (LA) on stephan moore's 16 channel hemispherical speaker system plus performing video: >Chika (NYC) >Chris Jordan (NYC) >David Lublin (Troy NY) and honorary guests: >Bill Etra >Benton Z Bainbridge 9:00 p.m., $10 halloween film masquerade ball w/ bradley eros Monday, October 31 "The Kingdom of Shadows at the Castle of Mysteries" Projections of sublime horror, via films, videos, & magic lantern slides..by the Vampirate (Bradley) Eros, including Witchcraft Through the Ages, with appearances from Faust, Dracula, Vampyr and The Raven plus special guests Lary 7, DJ Maria Chavez and Dorit Chrysler (theremin) among other mystery guests.... "...the Night is the only time I feel alive..& only the Night has this power.." NOTE: This is a costume masquerade ball. Guests preferably come dressed as film-related personae. 8:00 p.m., Pay what you can. . . $5.. $10.. $20 jandek Wednesday, September 7 2 shows -- 7:30 p.m. & 9:00 p.m. Note: The content of both of these performances will be different This show is Sold Out. Please note the Project Room will not be taking reservations. "Back in 1978 Jandek's first album, Ready for the House introduced the kind of blasted interior landscapes that dominate his recordings, with an expiring guitar, apparently tuned to the movements of the stars, coiled like barbed wire around a distressed, semi-articulate vocal that conflated eschatological blues imagery, religious iconography and hermetically personal visions of isolation. Since then he has self-released 42 of the most emotionally traumatic and formally wayward recordings ever broadcast via the tongues of humans." --David Keenan/Volcanic Tongue Doors open at 7:00 p.m., $20 (per show) psi/pee-ess-eye + sean meehan + talibam Thursday, September 8 Only on this special occasion will psi/pee-ess-eye bend pitchforks and fold time while applying stoppages to underwater incoherance. Acoustic music will be combined to discord and be used as a means of driving out the slovenly demons of complacency and dread! For further evidence of the hoe dug deep, absorb the brutal silences of Sean Meehan and semi-delinquent spazzcore of Talibam! psi/pee-ess-eye Brooklyn, New York based. Cathartic, hermetic, meditative noise that slowly evolves into nothing. New CD Artificially Retarded Soul Care Operators out now on Evolving Ear. www.evolvingear.com Sean Meehan Current performances generally find Sean Meehan playing only the snare drum in a manner that sheds conventional usage and reconstructs the conception and function of the instrument. Concert activities, both at home and away, are divided between playing in conventional settings for experimental music and in seeking out unique locations that are often in the unwatched and unconsidered corners of the city. http://www.home.earthlink.net/~overturnedbowl/ Talibam improvises into melodic sequences and burrows it's way deep out of them with on point theatrics and intricate blasted beats. With Matt Mottel on synthesizer, Kevin Shea on drums, and Ed Bear on baritone saxaphone and electronics). 8:00 p.m., $10 laughter benefits all Friday, September 9 Leave the work week behind and join us for a "laugh in" benefit for ISSUE Project Room and yourself. Laughter has been knowingly used for centuries in rituals, healing, for scientific analysis, even as a creator of life in biblical text. This Friday, we come together for a laughing marathon, leaving behind context in order to get to the real thing: props, jokes and alcohol are against the rules until the marathon's over. It's not over until somebody's had the last laugh. Starts at 8:00 p.m., party to follow. Laughter is on sale. Reduced price for the evening, pay what you can: $5, 10, 20, 100, 1000, 10,000...... robert louis schmaltz a site-specific sculpture using site-specific materials OPENING Thursday, September 15 -- 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Raised in Leesburg, Virginia, Robert Louis Schmaltz witnessed a wooded wonderland get buried under an alien architectural sprawl of imposed monoculturalism. The creek where he would once fish had become the cement slab of a four-lane highway. Now fascinated by emergent systems, the world¹s logic machine, and the malleable terms within finite parameters, Robert's art investigates the resonance that feeds from the human, through the environment, back through the human to reciprocate again. In his site-specific performances, installations, and sculptures, Robert uses site-specific materials to dissolve the tension between structural development and pre-existing environments. Robert uses DV recording devices and digital photography to record the process of installing the site works. "There's a dialog between the living breathing me, my social body, my physical actions, and the living, responsive and engaging environment that if ignored would really telescope away the periphery of the art onto the object." Robert lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Robert's work has been shown The Bond Gallery (New York, NY), The Royal Academy of Great Art (New York, NY), The Visual Arts Gallery (New York, NY). His site-specific installations, sculptures and performances can be seen at a variety of locations in Brooklyn, NY and New York, NY. jim pugliese's phase III featuring marc ribot Thursday, September 15 Jim Pugliese's Phase III will team up with guitarist extraordinaire Marc Ribot in a rare night of musical camaraderie. The evening will start off with a solo set by Marc Ribot followed by Phase III. "Phase III" is Jim Pugliese's newest project and is a continuation of his ongoing quest to combine his diverse performing experiences into a single new sound with its base in rhythm. The music skirts and shifts along the edges of free improvisation, deep groove, New Music and African influenced rhythms. It reflects Jim's ongoing quest to explore the powerful, enlightening and spiritual secrets of drumming and is inspired by his recent association and work with Nii Tettey Tetteh, master musician from Ghana, with Milford Graves, learning drumming and healing through the heartbeat and his study of the spiritual songs of the Mbira Dzavadzimu from Zimbabwe. Phase III will premier some new works and perform some very special, danceable cover tunes with: Christine Bard (drums), Kato Hideki (bass), Michael Attias (alto sax), and Marco Cappelli (guitar). 8:00 p.m., $10 eyvind kang & jessika kenney Friday, September 16 Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenneyhave created a unique and inclusive body of work involving the poetic setting of sacred/historical texts, within a framework of syncretic tunings and sounds. They will share a selection of these pieces and other gems! Composer/violist Eyvind Kang works with many communities of musicians, particularly in New York, Seattle, Reykjavik, Bologna, Vienna, and the Bay Area. He has released CDs on Tzadik, Ipecac, and Abduction to wide acclaim, including "Virginal Coordinates"(2004). Eyvind has also been known to play with such musical luminaries as Bill Frisell, Amir Koushkani, Kala Ramnath, and Trey Spruance. Jessika Kenney is a vocalist involved in connection to the musical past through a wide range of methods. For the last ten years Jessika has collaborated on new vocal music with composer Jarrad Powell, some of which will be released on Present Sounds in November. She has performed as a soloist with Gamelan Pacifica, Orquestra Teatro Communale di Bologna, the Degenerate Art Orchestra, the Black Cat Orchestra, noted doom metal group ASVA, and many others. 8:00 p.m., $10 poets dinner Saturday, September 17 ISSUE Project Room inaugurates our 2005-2006 literary season with "New Language" -- a series of multidisciplinary events including readings, multi-media performances, small press bookfairs, literary exhibitions and more. Also included in the series is a monthly Poet's Dinner, a gathering of poets to converse and inspire while all are welcomed to come and feast at a banquet of artisanal food. This month, Ken Goldsmith, Edwin Torres, Carol Mirakove, Anselm Berrigan, Kristin Prevallet, Marc Zegans and Dana Maisel join the Table. All food is home-made and cooked on site by Chef Anila of Essential Kettle, a unique and imaginative catering company using only whole foods and seasonal ingredients. Join us for a three-course dinner serving: olive and cheeses, fresh baked breads, seasonal harvest stew, & homemade ice cream w/ brownies for desert. Pre-fix menu costs $20.00 (beverage/alcohol additional). Reservations are strongly recommended. Call 718-330-0313 or email us: info@issueprojectroom.org julian ottavi & dion workman spati0silo : a two-day live installation September 18-20 From September 18 to September 20, Julien Ottavi and Dion Workman will implement the next stage in their ongoing collaboration. Since 2003 Ottavi and Workman have been developing a collaborative practice that explicitly engages with the social context of experimental music; dissolving boundaries between performance and installation, concert hall and studio space (or, the inside and outside of 'musical' spaces), improvisation and composition, 'pieces' of music and 'sound worlds' of indeterminate duration. Their collaborative practice constitutes a pure research of sonic intervention into socio-architectonics. Spati0silo will consist of a single long duration performance/installation utilizing a 16 channel sound system designed and built by Stephan Moore. Capturing sound from the grounds of Issue Project Room, inside the silo that constitutes the performance space and further inside their computers, Ottavi and Workman will construct a 36 hour long piece that explores the aesthetic and technological possibilities of complex sonic spatialization. The complexity of the projects technological and sonic/spatial aspects will be mirrored in the level of engagement of the artists with their audience. The relatively long duration of the performance allows for an on-going conversation where audience responses can inform the 'piece' allowing for a social feedback loop that contributes to the evolution of the work. This conversation may operate on the various levels of aesthetic, technological or socio-political considerations. Julien Ottavi is a Nantes (France) based sound artist. He is a founding member of Formanex (performing 20th Century graphic scores by Cornelius Cardew, John Cage, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman and Earle Brown among others) and regurlarly collaborates with Dion Workman, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Pizmo, Ralf Wehowsky, Keith Rowe, Brandon Labelle and Sophie Gosselin. Recent solo works by Ottavi include Nervure Magnetique (Sigma Editions) and For Degradable Music: the CDR I will Never Release (W.M.O/R). Ottavi is also the founder of the experimental music organization APO33. Dion Workman, a native of New Zealand now based in New York, is a composer and improviser of experimental computer music. For over a decade Workman has been articulating a unique sonic vision exploring the extreme edges of musicality, "sound art" and the audible world. In 2003 Workman was awarded the Max Brand Prize for innovation in electronic and electro-acoustic music by the Austrian Cultural Forum for his composition 'Ching' (Antiopic, 2003). In 2004 Workman founded TMP a research collective of sound artists and theorists investigating the relationship between sound and psycho-geography. TMP research projects involve the manipulation of sound in public spaces and the creation of vastly spatialized sonic pieces where "composition" becomes the act of moving through space. peter herbert cd release party Wednesday, September 21 After having played the bass for 25 years in the most diverse contexts imaginable, I have arrived at the point, where I feel, I have just opened the door to the way of finding my own 'sound', that trademark recognisability, sometimes first-name only privilege, like Wayne or Herbie, Miles or Mingus. It will be another 25 years to establish it, but it feels like a tremendous privilege to have arrived at the vision for it. My new record 'solo-solo bass' is the ultimate challenge for bassplayers, the one-track/one bass challenge, trying to stay interesting for the course of one CD's length of music or a whole evening of a live-concert. Having realised, that I cannot do that all alone, I have asked fellow bassplayers to write pieces for me, which I will also perform. Among them are Joëlle Léandre, Mark Dresser, Alexandre Tannous, Mark Helias and Marcel Khalife. I have done many solo-concerts since 10 years all over the world with the help of playback-CD's and loopdevices, but with this new CD comes a new chapter for me and hopefully for the audience as well. Voilá, naked bass it is. Peter Herbert, Paris, July 2005 8:00 p.m., $10 walter frank Friday, September 23 Pianist, composer and improviser Walter Frank was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He graduated from Conservatorio Municipal de Musica Manuel de Falla in 1996. In 1997 he was awarded the Lev Zion scholarship by the Council for Higher Education in Israel. He pursed his graduate piano studies at The Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance and then in 1998 in the graduate program at Tel Aviv University. He has recently earned his MA in Composition and Performance at Wesleyan University. 8:00 p.m., $10 wayne horvitz/briggan krauss/jim black Thursday, September 29 Longtime collaborators Briggan Krauss (alto saxophone, laptop) and Wayne Horvitz (keyboards, electronics) team up with mutual coconspirator Jim Black (drums, laptop) for a golden evening of spectacular noise and audio sweetness. 8:00 p.m., $10 a night of dream films outdoor screening Saturday, August 6 "from the unconscious to the uncanny, outdoors from dusk to starlight........ dream sequences, dance fantasy, erotic mystery, surrealism, silent film, animation, avant-garde, trance, nightmare, reverie, hallucination, desire..." Busby Berkeley, Buster Keaton, Luis Bunuel, Brothers Quay, Bruce Conner, Max Ernst, & Dali... oneiric titles include: Somewhere in Dreamland, Spin a Little Web of Dreams, Awake,But Dreaming, Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend, Take the 5:10 to Dreamland, DrunkDreamNightmare & Insomnia... With curators Bradley Eros and Joel Schlemowitz. 8:00 p.m., $10 jmps Thursday, August 11 The group JMPS was conceived by George Javori in his rehearsal space in the lower east side of NYC where he brings in different players of all types to pursue his vision of improvisional music. The result is a recording of wild beauty, drama, passion; but most of all, most importantly: a sense of humor. This evening Javori will be joined by: Jane Scarpantoni, Ed Pastorini, and Duke McVinnie. 8:00 p.m., $10 losers lounge Wednesday, August 17 Join the filmmakers for a Sneak Peek of indie feature film, LoSERS LoUNGE. Despite their relentless failure, four aspiring screenwriters in a small town manage to sabotage their one shot at success and discover that failure can be its own reward. The film champions the underdog & celeberates the spirit of creativity, language, comradery & turns the conventional ideas of success upside down. Written and directed by Janine Kijner and starring Robert Blanche, Robert Keli, Neil Kopplin, Simon Mainwaring and Christina McGrath with a soundtrack featuring legendary musicians Oscar Brown Jr. and The Legendary Marvin Pontiac (aka John Lurie), as well as original composition by Uwe Schenk and The Count Baischey Orchestra. The film is 90 minutes in length and was shot on location in Oregon and Washington. Ms. Kijner has received several awards for writing. She co-wrote "Duke's House, a film that premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival 2003 and worked on Postcard from Peje, a documentary set in post-war Kosovo that premiered at The Sundance Film Festival 2001. Her script, my father¹s wedding, was a Quarter-Finalist in the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship Competition 2001 and in The Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition 2001. 8:00 p.m. kato hideki & marco cappelli Thursday, August 18 Kato Hideki and Marco Cappelli perform their own materials as well as rediscovered songs from Europe and Asia. In an unusual twist on the traditional method of performing, they edit the songs as they play, sometimes morphing multiple songs into one piece and other time utilizing only a few notes of a song to create a new piece. Kato Hideki on acoustic bass and Marco Cappelli on guitar. 8:00 p.m., $10 david linton & the bicameral research sound & projection system / convolution / dj j.g. thirwell Saturday, August 20 The inscrutable J.G. Thirlwell was dropped on this planet some time ago to bestow sonic majesty, chaos, violence & beauty and cunning linguistics on an unsuspecting earth. This evening he will do so as deejay. A Brooklyn-based Australian ex-pat, Thirlwell has used many names for his many visions: Foetus (and its many name variations), Steroid Maximus, Clint Ruin, Wiseblood, DJ OTEFSU, Manorexia and Baby Zizanie. Over the course of more than a dozen albums he has stretched from yearning orchestral soundscapes, meticulously organized chaos, electronic swathes, blistering big band pastiche, crunching hard rock and even inventing stupefying collisions of genres and forms with a raw emotion and irresistible musicality. J.G. Thirlwell's new album as Foetus, LOVE, has just been released. He is currently working on a commission for Kronos Quartet and scoring the second season of the Cartoon Network's "The Venture Brothers". In a rare New York performance, Barcelona-based Convolution merges artist Silvia Mestres' radiant visuals, voice and sounds with Mark Cunningham's trumpet and electronics. Cunningham, a seminal iconoclast from the downtown No Wave scene, performs with Mestres music charged by emotion; provoked by images that surround its creation. "Subterranean whirls: The art of Convolution is situated somewhere amidst the least predictable ambient, jazz and rockŠthe duo transported us to new territories where heaven and hell get confused: at the bottom of fast and stimulant whirls." - La Vanguardia Swedish cellist Helena Espvall-Santoleri joins Convolution for this performance. "Espvall-Santoleri unleashes sensually quivering lines, splintered rock-guitar chug, Arabian-tinted motifs, string choke, or some whiplash-fluid and agile combination of all of the above." - Baltimore City Paper First hitting his stride as a downtown drummer in the early 1980's David Linton then moved to solo performing, live electronics, computer assisted composition, and sound design for dance and theater. Throughout the 90's he became a dedicated advocate for the expansion and appreciation of realtime performance in electronic media through the design and production of event / environments. Linton's fascination with instantaneous collaborative audio visual communication among select units of electronic musicians and visualists assumed the form of a live television Manhattan cable/webcast project - UGTV - Unitygain Television 1 AM Sunday mornings on MNN CH 34/mnn.org. David Linton & The Bicameral Research Sound & Projection System is a performed installation. 8:00 p.m., $10 david dove, pauline oliveros & loren dempster discussion & concert Tuesday, August 23 6:30 p.m. Discussion w/ David Dove David Dove, trombonist/educator and Director of Deep Listening Institute Houston, introduces his method of teaching improvisation to youth. Dove's work is noted in Wire Magazine May 2005 as ground breaking. This presentation is an inaugural event for ISSUE: Deep Listening - a new adventurous educational program of creative music making co-sponsored by Deep Listening Institute and ISSUE Project Room. Dove facilitates workshops on improvised music and art around the US and parts of Mexico, working in contexts as diverse as inner city community centers, homeless shelters, battered women's shelters, public and private high schools, dance studios, a church and Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening Space - where he was artist in co-residency with percussionist Chris Cogburn in the fall of 2002. 8:00 p.m. Concert of improvised music Featuring David Dove on trombone, Loren Kiyoshi Dempster on cello, and Pauline Oliveros on accordion. David Dove's trombone improvisations can be described as the sound of lips, breath, voice, and tongue amplified through a brass tube. Dave has been playing since the age of 11, performing a diverse range of musical styles. He teaches at MECA, an arts community center in Houston, TX and is the director of the Deep Listening Institute Houston. Loren Kiyoshi Dempster was born in Seattle, Washington. In 1996 he graduated with a BA/BM from the University of Washington, where he studied cello with Raymond Davis. Dempster recently studied cello with Bonnie Hampton and received an MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He began working with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1999. A regular among Company musicians, he plays solo cello in Gavin Bryars' BIPED, and is recognized worldwide for his performance of John Cage's One in Cunningham's dance Interscape. Pauline Oliveros is one of America's most vital composers. Deep Listening, her lifetime practice is fundamental to her composing, performing and teaching. She serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, Darius Milhaud Artist-in-residence at Mills College, Oakland CA and president of Deep Listening Institute in Kingston NY. $10 zoe beloff (films) + aki onda's invisible ensemble Wednesday, August 24 Zoe Beloff works with a variety of cinematic imagery: film, stereoscopic projection performance, interactive media and installation. More and more she finds herself fascinated by phantoms, by images that, "are not there". She would like to think of herself as an heir to the 19th century mediums whose materialization séances conjured up unconscious desires, in the most theatrical fashion. Though lacking psychic abilities she confesses to relying on cinematic illusionism or one could say the cinematic "medium". Lost -- Performance for stereo slides, hand-cranked projector and 78 rpm gramaphone records. A document of everyday life on New York's Lower East Side. To paraphrase Walter Benjamin; a spectacle not of life remembered but of life forgotten. Like dream images these cinematic fragments are hieroglyphic clues to a past illuminated at the very moment of its disappearance. Shadow Land or Light from The Other Side -- Stereoscopic 16mm B/W Film. Cast: Kate Valk, Paul Lazar, Gen Ken Montgomery, Luna Montgomery, Shelley Hirsch. A film based on the 1897 autobiography of Elizabeth d¹Espranc, a materializing medium who could produce full body apparitions. Aki Onda's Invisible Ensemble featuring Miguel Frasconi and Toshio Kajiwara. Music is essentially invisible. But could it be visible as well? Aki Onda's Invisible Ensemble takes you on a journey through imaginary landscapes, like Marco Polo describes imaginary cities to Kubla Khan in Italo Calvino's novel, Invisible Cities. Invisible Ensemble's discarded cassette tapes, old forgotten records and glassharp evoke nostalgic memories and create haunting poetic logic. What you hear is what you see. 8:00 p.m., $10 the works of anthony coleman Tuesday, August 30 Composer-keyboardist Anthony Coleman performs, records, and inspires throughout the world. Whether as a bandleader, a sideman, or solo pianist, the work of Anthony Coleman forms an important contribution and has helped to shape and influence the course of New York's Downtown Music scene over the last two decades. He is noted among the key luminaries of Free Improvisation, and his interest in Eastern European musical traditions helped to create what is now known as Radical Jewish Culture. Please join us on this extraordinary night with several of Downtown's virtuosos gathering together to accompany Coleman on a musical expedition covering twenty years of work. Musicians include Doug Weiselman, Jim Pugliese, Mike Sarin, Greg Cohen, Ted Reichman, Roy Nathanson, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Attias, and Marco Cappelli. Coleman's body of work will be represented by music originally written for projects such as Selfhaters Orchestra, by Night, Sephardic Tinge and Professionales; the major work The Abysmal Richness of the Infinite Proximity of the Same will be played, by the original cast of the Tzadik recording, for the first time in over 5 years. Additionally, the concert will also feature lesser-known chamber works of Coleman's and more recent compositions such as Pushy Blueness, a piece written in Hamburg, Germany with the assistance of the Frei und Hanseastadt Hamburg Kulturbehoerde. 8:00 p.m., $15 burning man as a visionary model a talk w/ daniel pinchbeck Tuesday, July 12 A discussion of the annual Burning Man festival in Black Rock Desert of Nevada as a visionary model for new forms of self-organizing communities, new ways of approaching art, as well as activism. Featured speakers will be Daniel Pinchbeck (author of Breaking Open the Head, he has written on Burning Man for ArtForum, Arthur, and Art in Review), Leo Villareal (artist with Sandra Gering Gallery, designer of the Disorient camp, his work is shown at museums around the world), and Johnny America (writer and activist with Green Dragon). Open discussion to follow brief presentations. Daniel Pinchbeck is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism (www.breakingopenthehead.com). He is currently completing a second book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on indigenous prophecies and The Apocalypse, theorizing an imminent transformation of human consciousness. 8:00 p.m., $10 nightwatch w/ warren holt & andrew hurst featuring caleb burhans Wednesday, July 13 Nightwatch was formed in NYC in 2002 by Warren Holt and Andrew Hurst by experimenting with collisions between digital and analog manipulations, noise and beauty, improvisations and set structures. They produced their self-titled first album consisting of cuts from live sessions in 2003. Nightwatch followed their debut album with a soundtrack for John Cage's Rock's Role (2003), soundtrack contributions for Nick Zed's Electra Elf and Fluffer (2003), and then a live music+video album recorded at a performance at Downtown Music Gallery in NYC (2004). Nightwatch also recorded an improvisation with Brian Dewan, Briggan Krauss, and projectionist Raha Raissnia at Thomas Erben Gallery (2004). Composer and violinist Caleb Burhans has premiered numerous works as well as working with such composers as La Monte Young, Lou Harrison, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Jacob Ter Veldhuis, Poul Ruders, Per Norgard, Roger Reynolds, George Crumb, Brian Ferneyhough, Martin Bresnik, David Liptak, Brad Lubman, Augusta Read Thomas and Bernard Rands. 8:00 p.m., $10 kpmpbw Tuesday, July 19 KPMPBW is Kevin Park on trumpet, Michael Plunkett on drums, and Brendon Wood on guitars. KPMPBW brings together an eclectic mix of styles and influences, transforming everyday sounds into beautifully serene and nightmarishly bleak landscapes. The music is lucidly experimental; it exploits electronics, drones, beats, and the idea of a bird in flight listening to his or her iPod. They will play music from their debut, self-released album Sparrow's Rib. For more information, www.kpmpbw.com. 8:00 p.m., $10 shimpei takeda: multi-video projections installation opening reception Wednesday, July 20 ISSUE Project Room presents a site-specific, multi-video projection installation of Shimpei Takeda. Born in Japan in 1982, Shimpei Takeda currently lives and works in New York City. Takeda uses digital photography and video to capture scenes from both the urban and the natural worlds, creating unique and expressive visual landscapes. Takeda's work has been shown at Knitting Factory (New York, NY), Weisman Art Museum (Minneapolis, MN), Toomey Tourell (San Francisco, CA), among other places. 8:00 p.m. jack wright w/ maria chavez & ricardo arias Thursday, July 21 In a rare debut, Texan Maria Chavez (turntables) joins improvisor Ricardo Arias (balloonist) for the first time, and Jack Wright (saxophone). Born in Lima, Peru in 1980, Maria Chavez grew up in Austin, Texas and has lived in Houston from the age of 10. Chavez melts and mutates all forms of vinyl and has a collection of 8 broken styluses (and counting) that all get different sounds. She has worked with many international, regional and local improvisers, including Christina Carter who is in a duo with Maria called Weird Cookie. Kaffe Matthews, who is in the process of making a cd with Maria due out early next year, opened for Hrvatski in August 2003 and has performed with Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) during her debut in NYC. Her solo cd "Those Eyes of Hers" is out now on www.pitchphase.com. Ricardo Arias, born in Bogota, Colombia and currently living in Queens, NY, has been making improvised music using unorthodox instruments for the past nineteen years. He has performed with numerous like minded musicians in Europe, South, and North America. Recent collaborations include a duo Michel Doneda, various groupings with Jack Wright, Nate Wooley, Vic Rawlings, James Fei, Sen Meehan, Barry Weisblat, N.R.A, Tatsuya Nakatani, and Hans Tammen. In 2004 he published a solo CD illustrating his work with the balloon kit. Jack Wright has been a bold saxophonist, as well as an influential musical personality over the past twenty-five years. He has been called the Johnny Appleseed of free improvisation for his encouragement to young players. As a musical explorer as well, his music passes through radical shifts of style and approach from one year to the next, yet always somehow identifiable as his own. His most recent tours have been with Michel Doneda, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bob Marsh, Michael Griener, Sabine Vogel, Reuben Radding, Phil Durrant, Tom Djll, and Bhob Rainey. 8:00 p.m., $10 neil burke / kites / nautical almanac / dan friel / necking Friday, July 22 Neil Burke was a founding member of the seminal spastic noise group Men's Recovery Project. His stylized visual art for MRP, as well as others, has become iconic and definitive of the noise culture he has been involved in for so long. He records and performs solo as Sinking Body. (www.monoroid.com) Kites and Nautical Almanac both use homemade electronics to give gripping and engaging performances. They have been key players in the progression of noise culture. Both performed in the No Fun Festival in Brooklyn last March. (www.loadrecords.com/bands/kites.html + www.heresee.com) Dan Friel plays in the New York group Parts and Labor and performs electronic noise-pop solo. (www.danfriel.com) Necking is new in the New York noise scene and often performs with two percussionists and electronics. (www.necking.co.kr) 8:00 p.m., $10 cassavetes & spaghetti dinner and a movie Tuesday, July 26 ISSUE Project Room and Essential Kettle are pleased to present Cassavetes & Spaghetti, an event that brings together community, artisanal food and our favorite independent filmmaker, John Cassavetes. In homage to Cassavetes, the evening begins with * scotch on the rocks, * followed by a community-style, * three-course meal, * before the screening of A Woman Under the Influence. Chef Anila Groft of Essential Kettle, an unique, imaginative catering company, has put together an exquisite selection of seasonal dishes inspired by the movie, such as pureed cannolini with thyme on baguette and spagghetti with grilled fennel, grilled eggplant, roasted garlic, roasted plum tomatoes, sage meatballs, fresh mozzarrella and fresh basil. $40 per person; Reservations only. Please call 718-330-0313 or email us to make a reservation before July 25. 7:00 p.m. briggan krauss & doug wieselman the difference Wednesday, July 27 Doug Wieselman e flat clarinet Briggan Krauss alto saxophone The Difference is a improvisation and rare collaboration between musicians and composers Krauss and Wieselman, who between them have worked with The Lounge Lizards, The Kamikaze Ground Crew, Sex Mob, Medeski Martin and Wood, Hal Willner and many others. The evening explores the timbral and textural possibilities within the Project Room's silo acoustic chamber. 8:00 p.m., $10 raz mesinai Saturday, July 30 Raz Mesinai aka Badawi performs his series of haunting compositions drawing from ancient nomadic music and free improvisations for zarb and framedrum Resurrections for goatskin. Raz Mesinai is both known as a Middle Eastern percussionist and a pioneer in new electronic and dub music with his groundbreaking hybrid project BADAWI, a synthesis of ancient, nomadic musical styles with contemporary electronics. Other works by Mesinai include "Before The Law", and "Cyborg Acoustics" on Tzadik and a fifth BADAWI release, on ROIR records, "Clones and False Prophets", and his much awaited new release on Asphodel "Safe" due to be released in October of this year. He has just completed scoring a feature film titled "Sorry, Hater's" starring Robin Wright Penn and Abdel Kachiche. 8:00 p.m., $10 new location inaugural benefit Wednesday, June 1 @ 8:00 PM Doors open at 7:30 p.m., Suggested donations $15 Featuring a turnstile of performances w/ SLAM (featuring Kenny Wollesen & marching band) + Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris (Conduction) + Marc Ribot (solo guitar) +Dorit Chrysler (theremin, vocals) w/ Gibby Haynes (of Butthole Surfers)+ DJ Toshio Kajawara (of Phenomena) + plus Feedback, Steven Berson (solo cello), Zeroboy & other special guests After two years in the East Village, we are celebrating our move into a renovated silo located in an industrial park on the Gowanus Canal. The new location Contains a ground level exhibition space for installation works, tea room / lounge & facilities; as well as an upstairs area solely designated to performances, maintaining the same openness and raw aesthetic integral to the Project Room's versatility and intimacy. All areas are slated to accommodate a wide range of uses including art exhibitions, sound installations, indoor and outdoor film/video projections, performative arts, literary readings, multidisciplinary events, lectures, workshops, concert series, cultural forums, and more. concert for national children's day Sunday, June 12-- 2:00 - 6:00p.m., $5 Sarah - Hadley Yakir violin Grace Brahimi poetry Sophia keyboard/vocals Max Coburn piano Stun Gun Defibrilator Feedback alan licht w/ ken goldsmith Thursday, June 16 -- 8:00 p.m., $10 A collaboration between guitarist Alan Licht and poet Ken Goldsmith. Licht and Goldsmith are well-renowned both within and beyond the New York community, where Licht is a guitarist, writer and critic, and Goldsmith DJ's on radio WFMU. Licht will play guitar while Kenneth Goldsmith reads from his work. david grubbs w/ special guests Friday, June 17-- 8:00 p.m., $10 Brooklyn-based recording artist and writer, David Grubbs joins special guests with poet Kenneth Goldsmith, artist Michael Graeve, and sound sculptor Dominique Petitgand in an evening of sound art, poetry and visual art. elliott sharp, steve piccolo, gak sato Saturday, June 18-- 8:00 p.m., $10 Expedition to Gowanus, is an evening of solos and combinations from New Yorkers E Sharp & Z Parkins and guests Steve Piccolo and Gak Sato. Piccolo was one of the founders of the Lounge Lizards together with saxophonist John Lurie and has been residing in Milan, Italy since the early 80's making art installations, composing such songs as "Self Control" for Laura Branigan, and performing in various formations. Gak Sato is a producer, thereminist, pianist and well-known remix artist. Together with Piccolo they perform under many incarnations. Composer and multi-instrumentalist E Sharp leads the groups Orchestra Carbon, Terraplane and Tectonics and has collaborated with the Radio-Symphony of Frankfurt, the Master Musicians of Jahjoukah, Natacha Atlas, and Pere Ubu. Please note: Zeena Parkins will not be able to perform this night. fairies of the solstice outdoor screening: fabulous fantasy films Tuesday, June 21-- come at dusk / 8:00pm "I have dreamt in the cave where the siren swims..." -Nerval On the Summer Solstice, under the Stars, we gather a bouquet of Spectral works; from gardens, fields, forests & lakes... Films magical, phastasmagorical, playful & menacing - full of fairies, nymphs, & creatures strange... Other worldly... some casting spells... some spelling the night... some enchanted evening... Titles include: Nymphomania, The Bubble Dance, Rabbit's Moon, The Garden of Earthly Delights, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Love Life of the Octopus... spanish fly w/ marcus rojas, steven bernstein, david tronzo Friday, June 24-- 8:00 p.m., $10 A tribute concert for Lester Bowie. Marcus Rojas on tuba; Steven Bernstein on trumpet and slide trumpet; David Tronzo on slide guitar z-plane Saturday, June 25-- 8:00 p.m., $10 z-plane is a meeting of the minds of Ras Moshe, Jackson Krall, Hans Tammen, Dafna Naphtali and Giles Hendrix in a third dimension of their own creation. It is a collaboration between members of two unique ensembles plus video. Ras Moshe (saxophones) and Jackson Krall (drums) are regularly performing with Ras' Music Now Unit and countless other esteemed projects (Krall also with Cecil Taylor). Dafna Naphtali and Hans Tammen have long collaborated as the core of Mechanique(s) - their live computer-based electronics and audio processing duo with "endangered guitar" and voice - and are also involved in an eclectic array of other projects. z-plane quartet will set both of these projects on a crazed collision course of the acoustic and the electronic intersecting in yet another way with video artist and bunker-at Subtonic veteran Giles Hendrix - they'll be checking out and playfully undermining the overlap of their technical and aesthetic practices. Naphtali's interactive processed sound/ "audio machinations" will filter/sample and otherwise mutate her 4-octave voice as well as the others: Hans Tammen's mechanical and energetic laptop manipulations, Rax Moshe's "fine, aggressive" multi-instrumentals ("on the forefront of musicians keeping avant garde jazz urgent and vital" - AllAboutJazz.com) and the drums of Jackson Krall ("a sound sculptor of major significance." - William Parker), with Hendrix's audio driven video manipulations. james tenney in new york james tenney: postal pieces Sunday, May 8, 2005 8:00 p.m., $12 The Project Room hosts a rare performance of Tenney's Postal Pieces (1965-71). Written during a brief tenure in the earliest days at CalArts, Postal Pieces is a remarkable series of eleven works printed on postcards. Also called "Scorecards", each piece is a kind of meditation on acoustics, form, or hyper-attention to a single performance gesture. Other works on the program include Collage #1 ("Blue Suede") for tape (1961), a landmark of American musique concrete based on Elvis Presley's version of Blue Suede Shoes, and Three Piano Rags (1964), three gems for the solo piano in the style of classical ragtime. Program: Postal Pieces for multiple instruments (1965-71); Collage #1 ("Blue Suede") for tape (1961); Three Piano Rags (1964) Participants include: James Tenney - composer, Jenny Lin - organizer/pianist, Elliott Sharp - guitar, Margaret Lancaster - flute, Danny Tunick - percussion, Members of DownTown Ensemble: Daniel Goode - clarinet, Leslie Ross - bassoon, Members of TILT brass band: Joe Exley - tuba, Jacob Garchik - bass trombone, Russ Johnson - trumpet, Christopher McIntyre - trombone, Members of Ne(x)tworks: Yves Dharamraj - cello, Cornelius Duffalo - violin, and host Frank J. Oteri. For reservations, email us info@issueprojectroom.org James Tenney in New York is presented with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, followed by a post-concert reception sponsored by the CalArts Alumni Association. . dorit chrysler & special guests Friday, May 13, 2005 8:00 p.m., $10 Dorit Chrysler performs on theremin, voice and laptop, with visuals by Lary 7. Dorit Chrysler's solo career was built around songwriting, guitar playing, the theremin and her hallmark vocal style. She participated in a new wave band in Austria until she moved overseas to front the NYC band "Halcion". Subsequently, Dorit drove the rock1n1roll style to a more abstract from, stripping it down to the essence of song writing and switching between pop and electronica, interpretation and improvisation, classic and innovation. electronic music festival's hip chips co-presents watch downhill speed a new sound installation by amnon wolman Saturday, May 14, 2005 8:00 p.m., $10 In a dark enclosed space using eight audio speakers, controlled by software clocks that are projected, are ever changing electronic sounds, measuring different timelines, meeting for an instant then drifting away. And a single automatic piano-preparation-unit is playing almost silently above a silent piano. "cosmic memory" a talk on rudolf steiner Sunday, May 15, 2005 8:00 p.m., $10 Join us for a special evening with Daniel Pinchbeck, as he discusses the life and work of Rudolf Steiner. In the second in a series, Pinchbeck will talk about the work of the Austrian visionary and occult philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1860-1925), founder of the Anthroposophical Movement, Waldorf Schools, and Biodynamic agriculture. Although neglected by the mainstream, Steiner reconciled rational and intuitive thought in an amazingly optimistic cosmology. His "spiritual science" integrates Eastern mysticism and the evolutionary perspective of modern empiricism. Steiner said that the mission of his life on earth was to bring the knowledge of reincarnation back to the West, and he offered prophetic information about the future that supports the foretellings of the Hopi Indians and the shift in consciousness indicated by the Mayan Calendar. Open discussion for questions and answers will follow. Pinchbeck is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism (www.breakingopenthehead.com). He is currently completing a second book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on indigenous prophecies and The Apocalypse, theorizing an imminent transformation of human consciousness. mattin barnes duo / jessica rylan / joyful sonic wash Wednesday, May 18, 2005 8:00 p.m., $10 Tim Barnes and Mattin are both major components of the global improv scene. Not only do they constantly collaborate with musicians from all over, but they are also both activists, of sorts, with their record labels- making sure that the music of their pears is available to whomever seeks it out. As for their own music, Barnes and Mattin are not too concerned with melodic encounters. It is more accurate to say that these two are obsessed with discovering new sounds in every object they decide to call their instrument. Primarily a percussionist, Barnes has been focusing on creating music that moves beyond the drum- using the construction ideas of the instrument to launch a whole new array of textural and sonic possibilities. A Basque Country native, Mattin creates computer music. However, his computer music is not based on programming, but rather using the computer as the object to be played. Mattin investigates the acoustic properties of his computer, while also assembling situations to create feedback. Mattin's feedback is often instigated by actually bowing the computer itself. This is the "now" of improvised music, and should not be missed. Jessica Rylan is a sound artist and electronic musician who lives in Boston. The main focus of her work to date has been the design and construction modular synthesizers which use analog electronic circuits to create a diversity of sounds. She uses her synthesizers in installations at galleries and also in her high-energy, live musical performances. She performs extensively throughout New England and has also undertaken several national tours which have taken her from Boston all the way to Seattle and San Francisco. She has also performed live on the radio and was featured in a PBS documentary in March, 2003. This is a rare NYC appearance. Joyful Sonic Wash is lead by Japanese artist Megumi Metsuzaki and her soaring sitar. With several self-released cd-rs to their credit (the latest being a wonderful solo outing by Megumi called White Sea), JSW takes on the astral collapse that Artist such as Don Cherry, Angus MacLise, Terry Riley, and International Harvester carved away at. A beautiful view. . . ne(x)tworks Thursday, May 19, 2005 8:00 p.m., $10 Ne(x)tworks performs works by Joan La Barbara, Cornelius Dufallo, Kenji Bunch, Chris McIntyre, and Earle Brown. Performers include: Joan La Barbara - voice; Cornelius Dufallo and Ariana Kim - violins; Kenji Bunch - viola; Steve Gosling - piano; Chris McIntyre - trombone and electronics Since its debut performance as part of the Electronic Music Foundation's series at the Chelsea Art Museum in June of 2003, Ne(x)tworks has become known as a highly unusual and boundary-breaking group of performing composers. The ensemble's recent performance at the Sounds Like Now Festival was described by the Brooklyn Rail as "spookily dazzling." giveaway * fordono * faire cadeau * regalar Saturday, April 2, 2005 Sunset - to - Sunrise, Doors open at 6:00 p.m. FREE & open to the public Artists, musicians, filmmakers, actors, poets, puppets, activists and many others gather inside the Project Room to fuel and inspire a ceremony of sounds, acts and visuals from sunset to sunrise. Expect a multitude of sensory stimuli, including live action video, multiple film projections, vast sonic variations and astral receptions. Featuring many special guests, among them, Kenny Wollesen's Give Away Street Unit, saxophonist Briggan Krauss, a Conduction with Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, multi-instrumentalist Peck Allmond; plus a variety of loops & linear projections teamed by filmmakers Bradley Eros, Lary 7, Joel Schlemowitz, plus video by Shimpei Takeda, Andy Graydon and many, many more. There is no distinction between audience/performer. Everyone is a participant when we dissolve the polarity between giver and receiver. Note: The evening will be comprised of 4 quarters, each marked by a distinct ritual leading into the next phrase. Additional hand instruments will be provided. Food will be served. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. and remain open until the next day. We encourage those who come to stay throughout the night, though you are welcomed to come in at any time and leave if you need. amnon wolman's birthday celebration Friday, April 15, 2005 9:00 p.m., $10 The Project Room presents compositions and sound-art installations of electronic composer Amnon Wolman. Among his works presented, "End Divided Road" (2002) for flute and electronics will be performed by Italian flutist Mario Carolli. And "Noises" (1999), where audience members are invited to participate along side artists Ursula Oppens, Gene Coleman, Andy Graydon, Drew Krause, Ardele Lister, Matthew Henning and many more. Please join us after for complimentary food and champagne to toast this joyous occasion. glass dreams Wednesday, April 20, 2005 9:00 p.m., $10 Gina Leishman glass armonica Kenny Wollesen percussion Marcus Rojas tuba Molly Barker graphic artist A rare sighting of composer Gina Leishman's one-of-a kind glass armonica (a three-tiered construction of spinning goblets). She will explore the outer reaches of sonic beauty in duets and trios with some of the maestros of the deep end: Kenny Wollesen, percussion; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Molly Barker, graphic artist and slide projection. proto-homos: a literary reading w/ visuals Thursday, April 21, 2005 Doors open at 7:00 Proto-Homos: Male-Male Erotic Cultures in the U.S. before 1900 will feature: Chris Packard, author of Queer Cowboys (2005) Jonathan Ned Katz, author of Love Stories : Sex between Men before Homosexuality (2003) David Deitcher, author of Dear Friends: American Photographs of Men Together, 1840-1918 (2001, paperback now available 2005) Following the reading (7:30 - 8:30 p.m.), there will be a reception celebrating the publication of Packard's novel Queer Cowboys. "how i learned to stop worrying and love the dimensional shift" a talk w/ daniel pinchbeck |